Tant: Bush poised for ironic step of instituting martial law

Posted: Saturday, October 15, 2005

A specter is stalking America - the specter of martial law. Earlier this month, the Bush/Cheney administration in Washington announced that it is considering using the military forces here in the United States against American citizens in the event of an avian flu outbreak in this nation. Dr. Irwin Redlener of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness told The Associated Press the White House plan is "an extraordinarily Draconian measure." He warned that the latest scheme by the Bush crew could translate into "martial law in the United States."

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While Bush gushed on Oct. 4 that he is "still a conservative, proudly so," there is nothing conservative about the Bush team's big government and big spending approach to domestic and foreign affairs. The court-appointed president who told CNN five years ago, "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier - just so long as I am the dictator," might not have been joking.

Ed

Tant

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Rumblings are emanating from the nation's capital that the Bush/Cheney junta is considering abandoning the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act that prevents the American military from being used as a domestic police force against American citizens. The United States has a long and proud tradition of civilian control of the military, but if the Bush administration has its way, Americans may one day wake up to the authoritarian specter of military control of the civilians.

The Clinton administration set the stage for a police state in the land of the formerly free in the wake of the Oklahoma City terror bombing. Clinton's 1999 Defense Authorization Act created exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act, and now the Bush bunch seem to be ready to gut the act entirely.

In 2003, Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who spearheaded America's deadly invasion of Iraq, said martial law could come to this nation after another terror attack on the scale of Sept. 11. Such a military rule of U.S. citizens would fly in the face of nearly 230 years of civilian sovereignty and democratic traditions in this country. It's ironic a Bush administration that mouths the mantra "terrorists attack us because they hate our freedoms" now is poised to toss out freedoms because of a terrorist attack.

On Sept. 9, a federal appeals court ruled the president of the United States has the authority to imprison indefinitely, without criminal charges, American citizens captured on U.S. soil. The ruling, unless overturned by a higher court, gives the president the power to jail U.S. citizens as part of the "war on terror," which could last for years or even decades, like the never-ending wars in George Orwell's novel of tyranny, "1984." The three-judge decision was handed down by two Clinton appointees and a judge appointed by the president's father, George H.W. Bush.

There are many Bush League quislings here in America who would welcome a martial law, police state in this country. In August, American Legion Commander Thomas Cadmus called for an end to "public protests" against the Iraq war, repeating the same old right-wing song and dance that protests "provide aid and comfort to our enemies." Protesters of Bush's desert disaster in Iraq would tell Commander Cadmus that the real enemy is in the White House.

On Armistice Day of 1919, shortly after the American Legion was founded, members in Centralia, Wash., led a mob that attacked a radical union hall in the town and lynched a union man who had been a hero in World War I. Now, in the 21st century, some in the same American Legion would lead another "red scare" war against every American's right to dissent.

Such Bush buddies and war hawks should consider the wise words of Army general and U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Here in America we are descended in blood and spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dared to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."

 Tant has been an Athens columnist since 1974. His work also has appeared in The New York Times, The Progressive, Astronomy magazine and other publications.